Just This

Enjoy the blessings of this day...for this day only is ours: we are dead to yesterday, and not born to tomorrow.

-Jeremy Taylor

From "Healing Zen," by Ellen Birx:

When we experience wholeness, when we are healed, there is "just this." Just this fleeting moment alive and vibrant. Just this breath, in and out. Just this deep purple morning glory climbing up the railing, fresh and open in the foggy September dawn. Just this cup of coffee. Just this stack of papers needing to be sorted. Just this person standing before me torn open by grief. Just this highway crowded with eighteen-wheelers. Just myself, just as I am.

Beth, a woman I cared for after abdominal surgery, had several complications resulting in an extended hospital stay and much pain and discomfort...in addition to taking the pain medications that were prescribed for her, she noticed that if she did not fight the pain or separate herself from the pain by thinking about it, she could move with the sensations and she was much more comfortable. She moved with the sensations, just as they were, rather than trying to push them away or interpret the meaning of the sensations. Experiencing the pain as "just this" was healing for her and increased her level of comfort.

Sometimes pain is more overwhelming than this, and you groan or cry out despite pain medication and other comfort measures. Sometimes pain causes nausea and vomiting. At times like these, "just this" is groaning. "Just this" is crying out. "Just this" is vomiting. You do not add to the discomfort by thinking that you should be able to experience the pain differently; that you should not be groaning, or crying out, or vomiting; or that in some way you are being punished. Rather you live out what is, just as it is.

The experience of "just this" does not only apply to a flower, a birdsong, a cup of tea, and all the beautiful aspects of life. It applies to your whole life, the happy times and the hard times. Nothing is excluded from your awareness. Your whole life is "just this" lived out fully moment by moment.